Red Right 88

07 Mar 2011

Surprisingly, Browns still division’s best

As bad as the Browns have been for the past couple of decades, they are still the best team in the AFC North, at least when it comes to all-time winning percentage.

The Browns’ .549 all-time winning percentage (485-398-13) is best in the division
Baltimore is at 535 (128-111-1)
Pittsburgh is at .520 (541-499-20)
No surprise, the Bengals bring up the rear at .435 (286-372-2)

So they have that going for them, which is nice. Hopefully the new regime of Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Pat Shurmur can get the team back on a winning track before those numbers drop.

***

Oh dear, this isn’t good.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was informed that several Buckeyes players were selling memorabilia more than eight months before the school claims it was made aware of the scheme, a two-month investigation has found.

Tressel received information that players were selling items to Edward Rife – the owner of Fine Line Ink Tattoos in Columbus – as early as April 2010, according to a source. However, neither Ohio State nor the NCAA investigated the transactions or the players’ relationship with Rife until December 2010, when the school claims it was informed of the situation by the local United States Attorney’s office.

Oh boy. If this is true, we hope Tressel doesn’t hurt himself falling off his high horse.

(H/T to Ben Blog)

***

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and New York Knicks center Amare Stoudemire have both backed Brandon Davies, who was kicked off the basketball team for a violation of the BYU honor code. The Salt Lake Tribune has reported Davies violated the code by having premarital sex with his girlfriend.

And we are supposed to care what Tebow and Stoudemire think, why?

***

Spring has returned at Anfield.

***

Interesting article at EPL Talk about how the influence of Americans on English soccer is resulting in a growth in statistical analysis among teams.

***

This was posted on UniWatch a few days ago and we still have no idea what is going on in this photo.

Posted in Anfield, Cleveland Browns, Liverpool | Leave a comment

06 Mar 2011

Hats off to Dirk Kuyt

Who’s better than Dirk Kuyt right now after his hat trick against Manchester United?

“It’s perfect,” Kuyt told Sky Sports afterwards. “You dream about the hat trick and to do it against United is the best feeling ever.

“I’m more than happy but I have to thank Luis (Suárez) because he played great and created two of the goals. They were quite easy goals, I used to score them in Holland when I played more like a striker. They count and I’m more than happy to take them.”

We’re happy, too, Dirk. We’re happy, too.

***

Following their loss to Chicago on Sunday, Miami is now a combined 2-8 on the season against Chicago, Boston and Orlando, and 12-18 against teams with winning records.

But they do lead the league in tears.

Just in case you were wondering.

Posted in Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool | Leave a comment

04 Mar 2011

Browns investing wisely in McCoy’s future

The Browns took another step toward ensuring Colt McCoy’s future when they signed quarterback Seneca Wallace to a three-year deal worth $9 million plus incentives.

While Wallace talked about wanting to be a starter next season, it’s clear that the Browns (i.e. team president Mike Holmgren) convinced Wallace that staying in Cleveland is the best place for the eight-year pro.

The key here is the Browns aren’t looking for Wallace to be a starter, but someone who can accelerate McCoy’s learning curve so the Browns can find out sooner, rather than later, if McCoy has what it takes to be a starting quarterback in the NFL.

Since Wallace doesn’t have the talent to be a starting quarterback in the league, he’s had to work harder and study more to try and find an edge, and obviously something is working as he’s made it this far. Having him around gives the Browns another voice experienced in the West Coast offense who can work with McCoy every day – and nothing bad can come from that.

While we wouldn’t want Wallace to be the Browns starting quarterback, as we learned last year having a capable backup is a good thing. If McCoy goes down early in a game, or misses a game with an injury, Wallace can hold his own for a game or a half – it’s not like the team has to rely on Todd Philcox or Spurgeon Wynn here.

More than anything else, the Browns have to find out what they have at quarterback with McCoy. And resigning Wallace moves them one step closer to putting the puzzle together.

Oh, the Browns also resigned linebacker D’Qwell Jackson to a one-year deal.

Jackson has missed 26 games over the past two seasons with injuries.

***

Indians pitcher Mitch Talbot doesn’t want to hear about the team being too young or too poor to compete in the American League.

“Same thing we heard in Tampa,” Talbot told The Plain Dealer after making his first start of spring training against the Texas Rangers. “Enough of this. Young? I don’t care. Let’s go win.”

If nothing else, we like the kid’s moxie.

***

While watching the Kent State-Akron game, we saw a commercial for ESPN Film’s upcoming documentary on The Fab 5 from Michigan.

We can’t believe its been 20 years since Chris Webber, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard and Ray Jackson were college freshmen.

While that makes us feel old, there’s no way we’re missing this one when it airs on March 13.

***

Finally, Brian Phillips at Slate has a great read on Parity vs. Greatness: The Most Important Debate in Sports.

Phillips writes that:

We don’t usually think about sports in these terms, but a league is a design problem—an aesthetic problem, really. A professional sports league has to balance distinct and often contradictory priorities, and how it does so helps to determine, before a player sends a single ball moving through space, the sort of experience it will offer fans.

One reason people like to watch team sports is to witness intensely competitive games—contests between evenly matched opponents in which the outcome hangs in doubt. Another is to watch extraordinarily gifted players play the game at the highest level. If you engineer a league to have an even distribution of talent—tightly regulating player movement, enforcing spending limits, funneling cash and talent to the weakest teams—then you encourage close games. But because the best players are spread out across more teams, you discourage fantastic displays of skill.

Phillips makes some interesting points. And as Cleveland fans, we face that question more now than ever.

When the Indians had an All-Star at every position (or so it seemed) in the mid- to late-’90s, we wanted greatness. But the economics of baseball changed and now the Indians can’t compete.

When the Cavs had LeBron, we wanted greatness; now we long for the team to be relevant again.

As for the Browns, all we really have is enduring hope. There really isn’t anything else.

Greatness or parity?

Which would you choose?

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Colt McCoy, Seneca Wallace | Leave a comment

04 Mar 2011

Time for a Heat check

After blowing a 24-point lead on Thursday night, highlighted by a 40-9 run from Orlando, Miami is now a combined 2-7 on the season against Chicago, Boston and Orlando, and 12-16 against teams with winning records.

Starting tonight, the Heat face the Spurs (twice), Chicago, the Lakers and Oklahoma City over their next seven games.

Sounds like Pat Riley needs to get a better supporting cast around LeBron James.

Maybe things really aren’t any better away from home.

Posted in NBA | Leave a comment

02 Mar 2011

3 Comments

Brandon Davies should have gone to OSU

On Tuesday, BYU dismissed starting forward Brandon Davies from the team for the rest of the season for a violation of the school’s honor code. Davies reportedly had sex with his girlfriend.

Davies, who started 26 of 29 games for the third-ranked Cougars, averaged 11.1 points and a team-leading 6.2 rebounds. The team felt his loss right away, losing Wednesday night to New Mexico.

The dismissal greatly reduces BYU’s chances of being this year’s Butler in the upcoming NCAA tournament, as Kurt Kragthorpe explains in The Salt Lake Tribune:

This team could not lose afford to lose anybody from the playing rotation, and Davies is one of BYU’s best athletes. The Cougars were not especially deep to begin with, basically using six players for extended minutes and piecing things together from there. … The Honor Code is part of what distinguishes BYU as a private, church-owned school. … There’s obviously no double standard in play for prominent athletes.

No double standard for prominent athletes? What’s that about?

Davies should have gone to Ohio State . Then he would have just been suspended for a game next season against IUPUI.

Clearly BYU needs to get its priorities straightened out.

The only thing we can’t figure out is how Jim McMahon made it through four years at BYU without violating the honor code?

***

Tribe general manager Chris Antonetti reportedly has doubts that center fielder Grady Sizemore will be ready to start the season on the opening day roster.

We’re cool with that. The Indians are not going to contend this season, so we’d rather see Sizemore get healthy and play in the last 140+ games of the season than rush to be ready for the opener and then miss a bigger chunk of the season if he’s not fully healthy.

***

Andy Carroll, the £35 million pound man, is reportedly set to make his Liverpool debut on Sunday against Manchester United.

Time to start earning your money, son.

***

Showing how great minds think alike, Terry Pluto echoes something we touched on briefly yesterday, that the NFL Combine is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to drafting players. Pluto writes that:

When it comes to the NFL draft, let’s hope the Browns do exactly what they did a year ago in the first round — they took the best pure football player, according to their ratings.

They didn’t lose focus with all the smoke from the NFL combine about how Joe Haden’s 40-yard times (about 4.5) showed he couldn’t be a big-time NFL cornerback. In fact, some scouts wondered if Haden could be better suited for safety.

Browns General Manager Tom Heckert did something very surprising for the NFL. He watched game tapes of Haden, over and over. He relied on reports from his scouts, who personally observed Haden in game conditions. They checked his character. They determined he was a guy who could really play, basing that judgment on how he played in games.

Until he shows us otherwise, we’re confident the Browns are in good hands with Heckert and team president Mike Holmgren running the draft board.

***

Staying on the NFL Draft, would the Browns consider selecting Oregon linebacker Casey Matthews?

That would be fine with us – as long as the Browns feel Matthews is a solid pick.

We’d hate for them to pick him, though, solely because they didn’t draft his brother, Clay III, in 2009. That wouldn’t make any sense, but we’re getting the feeling that people seem to be leaning toward that way of thinking.

Hopefully general manager Tom Heckert isn’t one of those people.

Posted in Brandon Davies, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool, misplaced priorities, NFL draft

01 Mar 2011

What a difference four years make

With the Spurs coming to town tomorrow night to take on the Cavs, it got us to thinking about the 2007 NBA finals.

We realize there is turnover in professional sports and especially on the Cavs in the past 2-3 years as they chased their first championship.

But we were still surprised when we looked back and realized there are only two players left on the Cavs roster from that season – Anderson Varajeo and Boobie Gibson (by comparison, the Spurs still have four players: Matt Bonner, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker).

That says something, we’re just not sure what.

***

Now that the NFL Combine is over it’s good to remember that just because someone trained for that particular event and put on an “impressive” performance doesn’t mean they can actually play at the NFL level.

Real Clear Sports came up with a list of the Top 10 Combine Performers over the years. The list shows that when considering who the Browns should draft, there’s more than just how many times you bench press 225 pounds.

***

Finally, here’s a good article about how Cleveland-based BioEnterprise is working to bring bioscience companies to Northeast Ohio. Since 2002, the group has helped 90 companies bring more than $975 million in new funding to the region.

Proof that something is going right in the region.

Posted in Cleveland Cavaliers, NFL combine | Leave a comment

28 Feb 2011

Jamison’s bad break good for Cavs

The Cavs announced on Monday that leading scorer Antawn Jamison will be out 5-7 weeks with a fractured left little finger that will require surgery on Tuesday.

Jamison hurt his finger during Sunday’s loss to the 76ers. The 5-7 week time frame basically means Jamison and his 18 points per game will join Anderson Varajeo on the sidelines until next season.

While this is bad news for Jamison, it’s actually good news for the Cavs’ long-term future. After losing an NBA-record 26 games in a row, the Cavs appeared to be a lock for the most balls in the draft lottery.

But after going 3-3 over their last six games, the Cavs have let Minnesota creep within 2.5 games of the worst record in the league; with Sacramento just four games back.

That’s no way to go about maximizing your chances of landing the top pick in the NBA Draft.

***

For what it’s worth, NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock expressed faith in Cleveland’s second-year quarterback Colt McCoy at a press conference Sunday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“That kid did a heckuva job last year,” Mayock told The Beacon Journal. “The kid’s won at every level. What did I say earlier about quarterbacks? How much do they care about the game? Are they the first one in the building? That’s him. He’s a gym rat.

“So I’m betting on him and I think the Cleveland Browns are, too. His arm is above average. It’s not great and it’s not elite. But the league has been (filled) with those kind of kids forever.

“If you understand where and when to throw the football and get it out quickly, you’re going to be fine.”

***

We’re still not sure how Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney can get off with no punishment for elbowing Wigan’s James McCarthy in the head during Saturday’s FA Cup game, but Liverpool’s Ryan Babel was censured and fined £10,000 for Tweeting a mocked-up photo of ref Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt.

If only we could identify the common thread that unites these two incidents, we might be able to make some sense of this.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Colt McCoy, Liverpool, Wayne Rooney | Leave a comment

26 Feb 2011

Now batting cleanup …

Browns president Mike Holmgren?

OK, not really, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First off, general manager Tom Heckert and coach Pat Shurmur obviously got the message from Holmgren about Colt McCoy and what Holmgrem wants the team to do.

“I would say that based on what I know to this point, I’m extremely excited about working with Colt and him being our guy. I think that’s where we’re going,” Shurmur said in his first extensive interview since being introduced as Browns coach Jan. 13.

“I thoroughly evaluated Colt last year (as Rams offensive coordinator) when we went through the (draft) process with Sam (Bradford). He’s very talented, works extremely hard, football’s important to him, he’s an accurate passer, he understands timing, he’s a good decision-maker. I think he has all the things you’re looking for in a guy that can be your guy.”

Heckert echoed Shurmur’s comments.

“I think there are some teams saying we need to get a quarterback in free agency or the draft. We’re definitely not at that point,” Heckert said. “We have all the confidence in the world Colt’s going to be good.”

On the upcoming draft, it sure sounds like the Browns are leaning toward filling a hole on defense with their first round pick:

”I think we’ve got two really good (cornerbacks), and the third one, we’ll see,” Heckert said. ”We have a couple guys that we like on our team, but is that a position that we would look at? . . . I think corner is just as good a possibility as anything.”

The one positive to the Browns drafting so high – again – is that, with several holes to fill, they should be able to land someone who can help them (see Joe Haden from last year’s draft).

If defensive linemen Clemson’s Da’Quan Bowers, Auburns’ Nick Fairley or North Carolina’s Robert Quinn are off the board, they can select LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson to pair with Haden. Or Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller. Orthey can go with Georgia’s A.J. Green to fill the gaping hole at wide receiver.

Or, if one of the top quarterbacks is still on the board, they may be able to swing a deal with a team desperate to make a mistake on one-year wonder Cam Newton and bring in extra picks to restock the roster.

So, for now, things are looking good.

As for Holmgren, earlier in the week he said the team is looking to draft “a home-run hitter.”

While he may have mixed up his metaphors, Holmgren’s desire for an impact player signals the team is continuing to think touchdowns (i.e. home runs) instead of field goals (singles?) as they continue to rebuild the team.

And with everyone on the same page maybe, for once, the rebuild won’t end up looking like a condemned building.

***

After losing to the Bulls on Thursday night, the Heat are now a combined 0-5 on the season against Chicago and Boston, 0-2 against Dallas (second-best record in the West) and have yet to play San Antonio (best record in the NBA).

The Heat are also just 12-14 against teams with winning records.

Sounds like Miami should have built a better supporting cast for LeBron James.

***

Finally, David Hirshey at ESPN missed the mark with his criticism of David Beckham this week: Thanks for nothing, Becks.

Hirshey’s main complaint is that Beckham didn’t live up to Hirshey’s expectations after arriving in LA four years ago to play for the Galaxy, writing that:

Great news, everybody: David Beckham is back!

Remember when those words meant something? When the thought of Becks stepping onto an American soccer field made your heart soar because he was going to transform the Los Angeles Galaxy into the second coming of the Cosmos? When it was presumed he would spread the gospel of MLS around the world, just as Pelé did with the NASL back in the day?

Yeah, I remember those 20 minutes too.

So because Hirshey chose to buy into the hype thrown out by MLS and the Galaxy – hype that no one could ever life up to – Beckham is to blame.

We don’t know why anyone chose to believe Beckham alone would somehow transform a minor-league operation like the MLS into something bigger.

Beckham was used to playing on the some of the world’s biggest teams in some of the world’s biggest competitions. Somehow playing in front of 10,000 people in Kansas City isn’t the same.

So Hirshey got duped and now he wants to blame someone. That’s on him; not Beckham.

Hirshey did get one thing right: Grant Wahl’s book, The Beckham Experiment, is a terrific book.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, David Beckham, NFL draft | Leave a comment

24 Feb 2011

Cavs score their biggest win of the season

The Cavs scored their biggest win of the season on Thursday, completing a trade that landed the team the Clippers first-round draft pick in this year’s draft.

The unprotected pick (the Clippers are the best) means the Cavs could wind up with two lottery picks in the draft, a perfect recipe for a team working hard to rebuild. And while there is certainly no guarantee that Cavs will land two impact players, having more than one shot certainly increases the odds that they will end up with one really good player and one really good support player.

In addition to the draft pick the Cavs acquired guard Baron Davis, shipping out Mo Williams and Jamario Moon.

“We’re excited to make this move,” Cavs general manager Chris Grant said in a press conference at the team’s practice facility. “We’re excited about Baron, a very talented player at a position that’s a difficult position in this league. We’ve also created an opportunity for ourselves as we continue to build this franchise and move forward with the draft pick. We feel good about it. We’re eager to keep going and keep moving. Our scouting department just got a little busier, which is a good thing.”

We like the way Grant handled the day. He knows he did a nice job with the trade, but that there is still more work to be done. If the Cavs don’t get lucky in the lottery and don’t pick the right players, this all means much less.

We’re sad to see Williams go, as we’ve enjoyed his play since he arrived in Cleveland before the 2008-09 season. Williams seemed to enjoy his time with the Cavs and he was fun to watch, especially during that first, 66-win season.

Sure, he struggled at times on defense, but he always gave a good effort, which is all fans can really ask for out of a player.

As for Moon … he was nice to have around when the Cavs were winning games by 25 points, but when the team asked him to do more this season it quickly became clear why he’s played on practically every professional team in the world during his career.

As for Davis, who knows? He’s still one of the league’s best point guards – when he wants to be.

“Baron won’t be happy,” a general manager who has had past dealings with Davis told ESPN on Thursday before the trade became official. “This is a worst-case scenario for him. He was just starting to get happy in L.A. playing with [Clippers rookie] Blake Griffin. There’s not much to get excited about in Cleveland these days.”

We’ll let that last remark slide for now.

Davis didn’t always get along with current Cavs coach Byron Scott when the two were together in New Orleans. And Davis often lets himself get out of shape when he’s not motivated.

But we have to believe Scott was consulted on the move and is comfortable that he can make this work. And the Cavs survived the ultimate malcontent in Ricky Davis, and lived through the girth of Shawn Kemp and Mel Turpin; they’ll get through anything Baron Davis may bring.

Luckily, the 31-year-old Davis, who is joining his fifth team in his 11-year NBA career, isn’t the key to the deal, despite what some would have you believe (h/t to Craig at WFNY). The real gem here is the draft pick.

And the fact that the Clippers, who have blown more high draft picks than probably the rest of the NBA combined over the years, reportedly were willing to trade the pick because they think this year’s draft is thin only makes us feel better about the deal.

After all, you don’t become a team like the Clippers unless you repeatedly do stupid things.

Oh, by the way, the Cavs also reportedly acquired center Semih Erden and forward Luke Harangody from Boston in exchange for a 2013 second-round draft pick.

We admit we don’t know much about either player, but in the spirit of the day we’ll chalk it up as another win for the team.

Posted in Baron Davis, Cleveland Cavaliers, Mo Williams, NBA | Leave a comment

23 Feb 2011

Is contraction really the answer?

Should Major League baseball start eliminating under-peforming teams? What about the NBA or the NFL?

Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal is the latest to ask the question, putting fans in Oakland and Tampa on, if not high alert, at least an elevated level, writing that:

Fans of the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays need not worry. But don’t be surprised if the “C” word — contraction — returns to the baseball lexicon soon.

I’m already hearing rumblings that certain big-market teams want to drop the A’s and Rays, even though the idea stands little chance of actually becoming reality.

Still, a major battle is brewing over revenue sharing, baseball’s method of rich teams helping the poor. Contraction would be an extreme solution, but one that addresses the big-market concern: Why keep struggling clubs afloat?

This comes on the heels of stories last fall that the NBA would consider contracting teams as a way to solve the league’s financial troubles:

“It’s a sensitive subject for me because I’ve spent 27 years in this job working very hard not only to maintain all of our teams, but along the way add a few,” commissioner David Stern said during his preseason conference call.

“But I think that’s a subject that will be on the table with the players as we look to see what’s the optimum way to present our game, and are there cities and teams that cannot make it in the current economic environment. I’m not spending a lot of time on it.”

While we understand the financial realities of pro sports and it makes sense that fewer teams would possibly be better, as Cleveland fans any talk of contraction makes us nervous.

The big unanswered question is: How would teams be selected for elimination?

Certainly the Browns wouldn’t be contracted if the subject ever came up within the NFL, not after everything that went on after the move. And Cleveland couldn’t have supported the Cavs any stronger than they did in the past seven years; same with the Indians from 1995 to 2001.

But teams generally cycle through good times and bad, and fan support cycles with them. Teams that are down now would, in theory, be the ones facing contraction. But is that fair?

If we were having this conversation in the 1970s or ’80s, it would be hard to argue that the Indians should not be eliminated. Year after year of owners with no money fielding bad teams in a crumbling stadium in front of 5,000 fans each night would have left the Tribe as prime candidates for contraction.

Same with the Cavs during Ted Stepien’s reign of errors and the dark years pre-LeBron, when Ricky Davis and Trajan Langdon played before a sea of blue seats on a nightly basis.

Imagine Cleveland as a one-sport town, where we would get 16 Browns games a year and that’s it for pro sports. Not something we like to think about.

We sometimes lose sight of how other fans are impacted by their teams, because nothing anyone else goes through compares to the pain of being a Cleveland fan. But on the issue of contraction, we would feel their pain.

Because this time they might be coming for them. But next time, what if they come for us?

***

Yeah, poor Denver (speaking of not having sympathy for other teams).

Again, don’t remember this being such a problem last July.

***

If this truly is Liverpool’s away shirt for next season, the only thing we have to say is Blech!

Adidas can’t really think putting the Reds in the color of cross-town rival Everton is a good idea. That would be the same as having the Browns come out for a game in black-and-gold.

Please tell us it ain’t so.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Liverpool | Leave a comment